More companies are now disclosing environmental, social and governance (ESG) information alongside financial disclosures to meet increasing demands for corporate transparency, accountability and disclosure.

“Disclosing sustainability and climate change information turns ‘green’ commitments into ‘green’ numbers, showcasing the climate risk mitigating actions taken by companies, and local and global communities,” says Lodewijk Nell, partner at Brundtland (previously EcoMetrix Africa).

Why should a company disclose ESG information?

• Meet shareholder and stakeholder demands
• Attract new investment
• Streamline regulatory compliance
• Improved transparency and accountability
• Expose risks and opportunities
• Better decision-making
• Increased operational efficiencies
• Strategic insight through performance management
• Build long-term business value
• Safeguard future profitability
• Manage carbon tax exposure

How to disclose ESG information?

The JSE recently released its voluntary Sustainability and Climate Disclosure Guidance to clarify what sustainability and climate-related information should be disclosed and how to report this clearly and consistently.

It offers a basic set of metrics aligned with existing well-established global standards including the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards.

As an accredited CDP Climate Change Consultancy solutions provider, Brundtland encourages – and enables – their clients to disclose sustainability and climate information voluntarily, both to achieve net-zero commitments and to comply with environmental laws, including the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions limits and the Carbon Tax Act.

“Being associated with a leading disclosure standard aligned with best practice TCFD recommendations enables us to assist, advise, and deploy our CDP Disclosure module, part of our EPCAM™ Cloud Solution for Carbon Management. It makes managing environmental performance and compliance reporting, such as national GHG Reporting and Carbon Tax, easier and simpler, and also enables transparent reporting on broader sustainability areas and ESG social disclosure metrics,” explains Nell. “Placing sustainability at the core of business performance will enable informed decisions to improve the overall business operations.”